Lady Ragnall, believed a time would come when she or I or both
of us, were destined to imbibe these _Taduki_ fumes and see wonderful
pictures of some past or future existence in which we were both
concerned. This knowledge, she declared, had come to her while she was
officiating in an apparently mindless condition as the priestess of the
Kendah god called the Ivory Child.

At the time I did not think it wise to pursue so exciting a subject with
a woman whose mind had been recently unbalanced, and afterwards in the
stress of new experiences, I forgot all about the matter, or at any rate
only thought of it very rarely.

Once, however, it did recur to me with some force. Shortly after I
came to England to spend my remaining days far from the temptations of
adventure, I was beguiled into becoming a steward of a Charity dinner
and, what was worse, into attending the said dinner. Although its
objects were admirable, it proved one of the most dreadful functions
in which I was ever called upon to share. There was a vast number of
people, some of them highly distinguished, who had come to support the
Charity or to show off their Orders, I don't know which, and others like
myself, not at all distinguished, just common subscribers, who had no
Orders and stood about the crowded room like waiters looking for a job.

At the dinner, which was very bad, I sat at a table so remote that I
could hear but little of the interminable speeches, which was perhaps
fortunate for me. In these circumstances I drifted into conversation
with my neighbour, a queer, wizened, black-bearded man who somehow
or other had found out that I was acquainted with the wilder parts of
Africa. He proved to be a wealthy scientist whose passion it was
to study the properties of herbs, especially of such as grow in the
interior of South America where he had been travelling for some years.

Presently he mentioned a root named Yage, known to the Indians which,
when pounded up into a paste and taken in the form of pills, had the
effect of enabling the patient to see events that were passing at a
distance. Indeed he alleged that a vision thus produced had caused him
to return home, since in it he saw that some relative of his, I think
a twin-sister, was dangerously ill. In fact, however, he might as well
have stayed away, as he only arrived in London on the day after her
funeral.

As I saw that he was really interested in the subject and observed that
he was a very